My Gratitude List--Day One

I loved listening to conference this weekend! It was so inspiring and peaceful. Brian allowed me to have the whole weekend off from cooking. I was in heaven just being able to sit and relax. I even got gluten-free cinnamon rolls, if you can believe it! They were really good!

I have been thinking about how I can follow the prophet's counsel to have a more grateful outlook and to show gratitude more often. I decided that every day this week I am going to post something that I am grateful for in Arizona.

Today I am going to start with the thing for which I am most grateful. That is that we are singing again. We have joined the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization (EVMCO) and now have the opportunity to be challenged musically and be a part of something truly extraordinary. It's like we have been lifted to a higher plane. We feel like singing more at home and even the kids feel that there has been a happy change. Brandon and Katelyn are in the children and youth choruses, but they are learning the songs from the adult choir as well since they join me in my practice. We not only sing more, we are singing better. That is so fun!

During our first rehearsal I peeked over to the tenor section to try to find Brian. He saw me and mouthed the words, "Thank you. I have missed this!" I did drag him to the audition, but we are both sure that this is where we are supposed to be. Our family needs music. Brian and I need music. We did not even realize how much we had missed singing together. This kind of choir is really rare. In fact there are only two in existence. One of them is in Arizona. That is one reason why I am grateful to be here.

Summer Photos

Hi, my people who read this blog. Sorry I've been absent for a while. It's not that I haven't wanted to write. It is just that I have let other things come to the front burners. Blogging just had to be put off until I was ready to write again.

We have been working on taking better care of our bodies. We have been trying to work in daily exercise, better menu planning and cooking, and getting enough sleep with earlier bedtimes. We feel really good and are now ready to dig in for the new school year. We actually started school a month ago, but that also took a lot of attention away from my blogging. I have a minute, so I thought I would post a thought or two and maybe some pictures.

At first we hated Arizona. All of us missed California so much. Even Zach occasionally laments that he wishes we could go to our real home in 'Fornia. Or sometimes he cries that he wants to go play baseball in Grandpa Carling's backyard. It is hard living in a place that seems to consist primarily of concrete. We miss our backyard and our trees! We miss the mountains! To make matters worse, we took a trip to Utah in July that made us realize that we never really mourned leaving Utah (since we thought maybe there was a chance we would move back.) So we have had a double dose of mourning. Hence the need to just go back to the basics.

Here are some pictures of our summer and why we needed to mourn.

These are all the boys in Brandon's old scout troop. Lots of them, huh. All good boys and great friends to each other. Guess how many in Brandon's scout troop now? Two. Brandon is one of them. Notice the beautiful trees and lake? It was hard for Brandon and Brian to leave that scout camp and transition to staying indoors most of the day.

This is one of the highlights of Katelyn's last few weeks in California. She got to meet one of her favorite role models, Jenny Oaks Baker. So many awesome cultural and musical opportunities in California. Hmmm.

We decided to get out of the heat after a couple of weeks of complete isolation and melting. We found relief in Cedar City. Did you know that the air actually smells wonderful nearer to the mountains? We had not known that we had missed this until we came back to Utah.

The older kids and I took in a couple of Shakespearean plays and loved every minute of it. I think the little kids loved time with Daddy in the hotel pool. I am not sure if Daddy loved Cedar City as much as the rest of us, but he is such a good sport.This is us on our picnic adventure up in North Fork. We all made it up to the waterfall even though Katelyn just had flip-flops on and I had to carry 40 pound Zach most of the way. Amanda was covered in dirt when we were done, but it was so much fun to be in the mountains.

Grandma and Grandpa waited at the trailhead for us, cheering us on. Aren't they wonderful?

We took a field trip to This Is the Place Heritage Park with Julie and her kids. What a wonderful reunion. We had already been at the copper mine and the candy factory that morning with the Wilhelmsen cousins. So many cousins and so little time...
Zachie's first horsie ride.


More cousins! It was so fun to see how they are all growing and changing, especially the babies.

Hanging out in Grandpa Wilhelmsen's shady backyard. Ahhh. We so enjoyed that the high that week was 90. (That was our low in AZ.)

We are learning not to hate Arizona. Actually there are lots of things we like about it. But, I'll have to save that for the next post.

Here We Are in Zona

Now we live in "Zona," as Zachie calls it. We are still recovering from the shock of going from 60s and 70s to 110s. Instead of wearing a sweater and spending tons of time outside, we just stay indoors as much as possible. When we do venture out, it is to the pool. We like our house a lot, but it seems very much like a nice condo and soon we'll be going home to our real house. Brian keeps assuring me that it really is OURS. It is the nicest house I've had and by far the easiest move we've ever had (since the movers did all the work) but I still don't really feel like it is home. This is us on the first day.
We happened to move here at a time when most people in the area are on vacation. There was a severe shortage of families at church on Sunday, but at least we got to sit in soft seats. We could have all fit in the first five rows! For some reason, no one wants to be here! Good thing we didn't need to call the elders to help us move in. None of our neighbors have come over to introduce themselves, probably because they are not home! Even if they were, no one wants to venture outside. I don't blame them! I don't even really want to go outside to take a picture of the house to put on the blog. Maybe later--like maybe November!

This is what we have been up to this week. Unpacking boxes and playing in the pool. The kids seem to be handling it okay. I mean, there are worse places to be stranded. This desert seems to be somewhat inhabitable. I'll let you know if we survive until November (when they say it finally becomes bearable.)

Here is Zachie helping me unpack the mountain of boxes in the kitchen. He's a big help.

Josh and Amanda--loving the pool. Luckily it has a large shallow area. They are learning how to swim fast, though. Give them a few more days.

Brandon and Josh having water wars.

Zachie feeding and petting the "dolphins" from the hot tub.

Zachie the water boy.

Brian getting thrown off the giant clown fish. The pool is definitely bringing out the inner child in him. I've also heard that he is fitting in really well among all the scouts at scout camp. Hmmm...imagine that.Katelyn loves the pool. She would spend the day in it if she could. It is long enough that she and I can even do some lap swimming if we can take a break from life guard duty once in a while.
My friend Toni, who also recently moved, posted on her blog the saying, "Come what may, and love it." I am trying to adopt this same attitude. I did come here crying all the way, but I am going to love it here I am sure. It will just take some time. Until then, we will swim.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

As corny as that sounds, it is really how we feel. I have tried to write this blog post many times and keep deleting it. I decided I am just going to let the pictures tell the story. This is what we left behind. I will try to narrate, but it's kind of hard to do with my heart missing.

This is Katelyn's birthday. Can you believe she turned ten last month?

Great friends all gathered in a great backyard. What will we do without them?

Our trip to the SF Giant's game. Brandon and Katelyn got to perform in a pre-game carnival just outside the stadium with their Showbiz group.

Brandon's group. It's like they are all my kids. It was magic to see them all perform together. They sang a variety of songs from "You Ain't Nothing But a Hound Dog" to "Footloose." Brandon's solo was Moon River. It was amazing. (I know mother's shouldn't brag, but I really was amazed!)

Katelyn's group. Such sweet girls. Some of them were in my Primary class. They sang a medley of Miley Cyrus songs. Katelyn also had a solo. It was darling.

Our family at LDS night at the Giant's game. Dozens of families from our ward were also there. It was so much fun, even if it was freezing. Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. He was right on! It seems like it is always cold there!

Brandon's last day of school. He was kind of glad to be done, but I know he loved singing with his 37 classmates every day in this very cool church made into a school. They are all in China right now touring. (He is at scout camp in California with all of his church friends, so I think he is past not getting to go to China. :))

Our trip to Temple Hill with Mom, Diane, Jacquie, Brook, and Dallin. We had to have one last trip to "our" temple. Thank goodness they came when they did. We were able to do a little bit of sight seeing before we left, including a trip to the mountains above Berkeley and a bay cruise between Sausalito and San Francisco. These are the Temple Hill photos.

Saying goodbye to our house. We are all smiling in the picture, but you should know we sat looking at the house a long time before we drove away. Tears came. So many memories in such a short time. So many dear friends we hated to leave. It was just as hard as leaving Utah! We have an understanding with the Bishopric in our California ward. They are giving us two years in Arizona and then they are going to pray us back. After all, they said they prayed us there in the first place. Knowing this ward, it just might work.

Drum roll please......

Everyone has been wondering what is next for our family. When we came to Cali it was supposed to be only for a year. That year, unbelievably, is almost up and now we are looking ahead at where our family is going to be next. Just in time for the summer heat, Brian told me today that he was offered a District Manager position in.....

Phoenix, Arizona!!

The kids are pretty excited. We have had this up in the air for so long, it's actually a big relief to know. We are hoping to settle there for a while. It is sad to leave this amazing climate with all the trees and flowers, but I'm sure we'll get used to cactus and scorpions and record-breaking heat. The best part is that we'll likely be able to buy a home and feel really settled. One thing we have learned in all this is that home is where the family is. We can live anywhere as long as we are together.

Happy Birthday! And, Happy Easter, too!

All I want for my birthday is my two front teeth! Our six-year-olds had a really fun birthday, missing teeth and all. If you can't tell, Amanda is missing her two bottom and Josh is missing his two top. They are quite a pair.

This year they shared their birthdays and even gave in on the cake when they saw this one staring at them through the glass at Costco. It wasn't my idea. Really! It just happened to mean that I didn't have to bake and decorate two separate cakes this year. Win-win. They decided it was pretty fun to share birthdays because then they each got two days to celebrate and most people just get one. Well, unless you are Zachie who shares birthdays with everyone in the family. Here he is insisting that we sing for him and allow him to blow out the candles too. To quote him, "Zachie's birthday, too!" Yes, we lit the candles for him afterward. You should have heard the heartbreak!!

Josh loved the toys and the new sports clothes and shoes. He was sure the new shoes made him jump higher and shoot better. The highlight of his day was playing basketball with Daddy and showing him all the basketball skills he has acquired through his daily practice.
Amanda's highlight was being the princess for the day (two days). She loved her crown and her new Barbie laptop. She has been working diligently on it as any good princess would.
The only trouble we had was when the presents came out. Zachie picked out one wrapped in Cars wrapping and said it was his. Josh graciously let him open it, but Zach discarded it when he saw that it was a dinosaur puzzle much too hard for him to put together. Then Josh opened his Buzz Lightyear. Zachie attached himself to that Buzz and became his best friend. Poor Josh! Luckily, he spent most of the day playing outside. He was content to let Zachie tend his Buzz for him.
After a while we decided that Zachie was not going to give up Buzz, no matter how much we tried to reason with him. The caption to this picture reads, "It's my Buzz!!!"
Poor Daddy. He had to make a trip to the toy store at 10:00 Saturday night so that we could get through the weekend peacefully. Now each boy has a Buzz and they both sleep with their prized possessions each night. Some people might say that our kids are spoiled. What would you do if you saw this face?
Does anyone remember where we were about five years ago? We celebrated Josh's first birthday one week late when Brian and I went to Samara to officially commit to adopting Josh, for the second time. A month later, we brought Brandon out with us and these two boys met. Brothers forever. We also celebrated Amanda's sealing on her birthday. She's been ours for five years.

Celebrating our sealings seems like a really good way to celebrate Easter. Life is so sweet! Today we have been thinking about Paul a lot and feeling really happy and grateful. We learned so much from him and feel so much peace in knowing that he lives. Today we sang a song called, "My Savior Lives" that we learned in ward choir. Brandon, Brian, and I all knew it and we all sang out together. We felt it. It's really true. He lives! It is because of Him that we enjoy the blessings of family and the abundant life. We hope you feel it too.

What We've Been Doing Lately--In Case You Wanted to Know

We've been really busy doing kindergarten at our house. We also call it core phase. Usually we have some chores to do. It's a lot more fun if we do them together--usually. This day we organized the pantry together. They helped unload the food items, clean out the shelves, and then put things back in airtight containers. They always have tons of questions and we talk about all kinds of things. We did a lot of counting and reading labels and just bringing some sense into why we do things. There were a few tears, but nothing too serious.

Recently we started listening to music or even a book on CD while we work. We loved the Flat Stanley books. Watch out--Stanley might be coming to visit you via the United States Postal Service sometime soon.

With this project we first had to clean the new containers. That led to lots of fun with bubbles. Zachie loved this the most.

After all the hard work it is then time for play. Zachie loves to play ball so on this day we had a little softball game going. They all made home runs and we all cheered.

Katelyn usually works on projects while we are in kindergarten. Sometimes she joins us, but most of the time she is too busy. She creates her own schedule usually filled with creative writing, math or geography lessons, or science experiments (she recently made a colloidal suspension or in other words, a lava lamp using oil, vinegar, water, and food coloring). She made this baby quilt to donate to charity with help from Grandma C's unused fabric collection.One day we decided to have tea just like we keep reading about in Little Women and Anne of Avonlea. Katelyn was thrilled about this idea. She got to wear one of my old floor length choir dresses (I did too, but for some reason I couldn't zip up the skirt part all the way.) We figured no one was coming over to see how silly we were being (notice no pictures), so we felt free to act the parts. Katelyn even came up with a British accent, although, I'm pretty sure we started in Concord or Avonlea. Amanda joined in as "Miss Amy" and even Josh put on a tie and vest just so he could have a cookie. He must have gotten bored with the conversation because he scampered off when the topic ventured into when "Miss Margaret" was coming out into society. Really Katelyn says she is most like Jo, but she really wanted to play the part of Meg. After tea Miss Margaret entertained us on the "pianoforte" and then gave a recitation. It was a lovely afternoon. Brian and Brandon didn't even tease when they walked in the door a little while later. The spell was kind of broken when Brian turned on the Gladiator to watch basketball, but we were pretty much ready to return to the 21st century by then.

Later after snack on this day, Amanda and Zachary had a doctrinal discussion on faith while I spent some one on one with Katelyn. It seems they both agree that people should have more of it (faith that is.) They love to look through big people books--even ones without pictures. They just love books and are looking forward to when they can read them without help.After a while we have reading time together. Usually a phonics lesson comes first, then they choose a few kid books to read together. Then I read aloud to everyone. Here Josh is building a Lincoln Log home while he listens to the biography of Abraham Lincoln. This is one of Josh's favorite things to do in kindergarten. His hands keep busy while he listens. He always has lots of questions and has some really great insights.

He recently told me who his hero is. I thought it would be Abraham Lincoln because he likes him so much. He surprised me and told me, "My hero is you, Mom!" It's because I read to him and am teaching him to read. That was payday for about five years or so. It helped me to realize that in between the fights and the headaches and those endless questions--there really are great things happening here. It's nice to have those paydays. I store them up for those days that try my patience. It's all good though. We are happy in our messes and I am starting to see the fruits.

Someday I am going to laugh about this toe hanging out of his sock. This is just so Josh. We just got him new socks!! But, after what he said to me about being his hero--we can buy him all the socks he wants. :)